Abrams said he had generally decided to leave out “Easter Eggs” – referential markers designed to reward fans of previous movies – from the final cut of the seventh official film in the long-running space opera. But in a comment which may not please Star Wars and Jar Jar Binks creator George Lucas, now retired from the film series, he said he was considering making it clear that the jabbering Gungan from the oft-derided prequel trilogy was no longer with us.

“I have a thought about putting Jar Jar Binks’s bones in the desert there,” said Abrams, adding: “I’m serious! Only three people will notice, but they’ll love it.”

Jar Jar Binks featured prominently in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, and also made brief appearances in 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith. A bumbling alien from the planet Naboo who Lucas reputedly intended to provide comic relief and keep young children happy, he is considered one of the most hated movie characters of all time.

“What I realised early on was it was all about point of view – meaning it’s not like you just objectively throw in a star field or a spaceship or a desert planet or whatever the thing,” he said. “The question is, who is that person in that experience? Why does it matter to them? What are they desperate for, or afraid of?

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“That, to me, has been the constant struggle: to make sure that none of these things are treated like either they’re a museum piece and we’re trying to honour them, or they’re gratuitous and thrown in because, well, it’s a Star Wars movie, so you’ve got to put these things in. Everything has got to be essential to the characters in the film.”

The Force Awakens, which is released in December, is according to researchers currently 2015’s most highly-anticipated movie. It is also the bookmakers’ runaway favourite to be the year’s highest-grossing film.

Abrams’ film will kick off a new trilogy set to climax in 2019, with studio Disney also set to release several spin-off anthology movies focusing on characters and motifs from the original triptych of films, which hit cinemas between 1977 and 1983. The first is Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, which debuts in December 2016.